Wait - it was all the fault of women in the Secret Service? Glenn Grothman on Trump on R4.

[DisneyHag]

Did I seriously hear that right? At about 6.54am on the Today programme, just now. Republican representative Glenn Grothman says the Secret Service is ‘so busy being woke they’re more concerned with employing women than ensuring they do a good job’. (Slight paraphrase.)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qj9z

This is him a couple of days ago:

newrepublic.com/post/183778/republican-rep-goes-unhinged-rant-women-emasculating-men

I've seen a picture afterwards & the men in his detail surrounded Trump & were on top of him providing a human shield. I then saw a secret service woman behind them cowering in the background looking scared. I'm sorry but your job is literally to take a bullet for your protectee & she had no intention of doing so. They are women that could do this job, but she isn't one of them & needs to be fired immediately.

yup he is supposed to do do what his bodyguards require of him. My reaction when I saw the video was that none of the bodyguards seemed to have the balls to force Trump to get down and get out of the way.

I did read a comment somewhere that pointed out his bodyguards may be reluctant to be too physical with Trump given his age. He's a decent height but he's still a man in his late 70s and manhandling him could do some damage. Same with Biden.

Really? Because this photo shows a female agent putting her head directly in front of his heart.

a broken limb is better than a dead pres.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2024/07/15/secret-service-chief-blamed-trump-shoot-security-failings/

I think she realised how exposed Trump was with her being shorter as at one point she put her hand up to try and block his head. But yeah, if he ducked down, got off the podium quicker rather than fucking about it would have been better. But shock, yadda, yadda, don’t know how you’d react until you’ve been in that position, yadda, yadda.

The candidate put himself at risk by intentionally rising above the agents, waving his hand for the photo op, while the agents were trying to build a shield out of themselves. It can be seen in the video here:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/15/secret-service-trump-rally-shooting

That's no-one's fault but his own for not following security protocol.

On that now famous photo, it seems like agenda-setting that it was everywhere immediatly. The press will have contributed to him getting votes by only using this photo at the beginning of the reporting.

I'm surprised, too, that after shots being fired, so many people still stand and look around instead of ducking or moving away, too.

Honestly the performance by the USSS was just embarrassing. And if I were a qualified and competent female SS agent right now I’d be pissed.

The director was very vocal about DEI hiring goals of 30% women. And in my experience when goals like that are on the table then you start to see slippage in quality of candidates and in requirements. This fiasco just set women as whole collectively back in spectacular fashion.

FFS… of the three that were in front of the car one couldn’t holster her weapon, one didn’t know where to stand, and one was fiddling with her sunglasses.

There are plenty of women who would, have, and do thrive in roles like this. But there are also plenty who have no business being anywhere near them.

Is this not a training issue? You're saying the quota gets badly prepared women in. But the quota is there to try and level the playing field because of the badly prepared men who got in on their contacts/frat house/just having a penis.

Fair point but there are some things that can’t be trained. If you fall apart in a situation you will suck at this job. Now in theory those people (man or woman) should wash out in training. But when you have targets for a certain demographic requirements in that training often aren’t as stringent.

So the issue is poorly implemented targets without support from good recruitment, selection and training policies. Not necessarily the targets/quotas in isolation.

How did you make it a racist remark?

This one.

It's completely perverse to have women risk their lives for men. A total modern madness. This female SS guard was only doing what came naturally to her and that wasn't throwing herself in front of a bullet for a man.

It’s putting targets above competency and ability regardless of the stage of employment (recruitment, training, promotion, and core competencies).

Sadly, when you do this you swing the door wide open to asshats to make comments about women as whole and you instantly discredit any woman that is qualified.

At the end of the day these 3 could have been men who tripped over themselves and looked like idiots… would they have been judged as harshly? Probably, but not based on their gender. But 3 women who were likely hired, trained, and got their position due to hiring targets are just giving those who would criticize extra ammunition, while at the same time discrediting the competent women in the position.

I’m all for women doing whatever job they are qualified for and think that young girls should be encouraged to explore all professions. I am wholeheartedly against women getting into, staying in, and getting promoted in jobs their main qualification is their demographic.

It's completely perverse to have women risk their lives for men

Why? It’s literally their job.

Hmm. Getting tall women shouldn't be an issue. I'm 5ft 11 and I know a woman who is a foot or so taller than me. She's no willowy beanpole either. Think rugby second row forward. Her partner is a mere stripping about 6ft 7. People are getting bigger for sure.

But maybe Trump wouldn't like women that tall? ' Wait , Where's my elevator shoes!'

I also was very surprised by how calm and unbothered the crowd look. I would have expected them to run away or drop to the ground.

@helpfulperson Yes, in the video I mentioned there is one man especially, on the left side in the stands who is trying to get the best video, looking like what is in front of him is entertainment. Somehow he's not realizing he could be the (accidental) target any second and assuming that whatever happened is now over.

Scatterolight that's the picture I was on about & if that's her natural response then she is in the wrong job. Being in the secret service you swear an oath that you would take a bullet for your protectee, on that basis alone she needs to be fired.

The women were far too short to protect Mr Trump who is 6ft 3”. To be effective the agents need to be as tall or taller than the person they are protecting.

The security was woeful. There’s videos taken by people in the audience which clearly show the gunman crawling up the roof. He shouldn’t have even got close to being there. Unbelievable.

Really? Because I saw a photo of a number of secret service people protecting Trump with their bodies, including one woman who was protecting his vital organs with her head.

I think the point of protecting someone with your body is your supposed to duck down. Trump kept popping back up.

Its clear there was some sort of fuck up with the security services level of protection and cover of the event. But I don't think anyone who knows what they are talking about is suggesting the agents actually on the ground didn't do a decent job (except suggesting they could have got him of the scene faster. Which I suspect was not 100%in their control).

I did think a lot of them looked quite young. Maybe older people would have had the authority to say "No you get down now and of the stage now" but Trump is quite a strong personality (one of the things his supporters like) so might not have made much difference

I don't think being strong enough to physically manhandle your target to safety against their will is part of the spec. If it is, women definitely wouldn't be as up to it. But I would be surprised.

But there is something extremely enraging about a flaccid commentator whose idea of risk is reacting to YouTube videos, looking at a video of a woman protecting a man's body with her own head and criticising her protective instincts
It's like you go do it then you chubby little oik.

The biggest failure was not noticing the guy with a gun that had been pointed out to them by randoms in the crowd.

I wouldn’t want any of these clowns put in charge of protecting one on my houseplants.

I think that they couldn't see the man on the roof from where they were standing but Could see the people in the crowd pointing to the man on the roof. There was definitely a huge failure to react quickly enough to that, also a big fuck up in not properly securing that roof in the first place or anyone being able to see it. And apparently not enough people full stop. Whether any of that is the fault of the personnel on stage with Trump or not isnt clear yet. It is weird that some people have decided not only the people on stage with him but specifically the women were responsible so fast.

It could be their fuck up. Maybe it was someone else's fuck up and that person was female. But it's the desperate searching for any woman that can be blamed/criticised that's odd.